This is especially true with today's 64 bit video cards that provide a 64 bit data path within video memory. Being able to blit from video memory to video memory using the video hardware's blitter is much faster than blitting from system memory to video memory. It lets you take advantage of the video hardware's blitter to blit these bitmaps within video memory. Its most important capability is to allow the programmer to store and manipulate bitmaps directly in video memory. This paper will focus on techniques for using DirectDraw functions so you can create fast, state of the art programs.ĭirectDraw is essentially a video memory manager. They are all designed to give the programmer APIs for directly accessing hardware.

DirectInput - Support for gaming input devices such as joysticks.DirectPlay - Support for networked multiplayer gaming.DirectSound - Direct access to Sound hardware.DirectDraw - Direct access to video memory.Microsoft's DirectX APIs are made up of the following groups: This section will give a high level overview of DirectDraw, explaining the concepts needed to understand what DirectDraw achieves. Creating the primary surface and setting up for page flipping.The page flipping approach to animation.DirectDraw surfaces - how you access video memory.

Ms directdraw